Coriolistic Anachronisms

It’s been weeks since we came back from the road. With so much to do in Cape Town, including flash training sessions for the Argus Cycle Tour, I’ve only had moderate amounts of time to sort out the many pictures taken and throw a few ideas on paper. But it is all taking shape.

Some might remember that in early 2009, Marie and I set out for a memorable road trip up the West Coast of South Africa, into Namibia’s incredible Namib Desert, across to southern Kalahari and back to Cape Town. I then wrote a series of 9 stories around the common theme Roasted in the Namib; they are regrouped here for sequential reading (yes, I thought of everything…)

Similarly, this year’s upcoming trip report should feature some 10 stories along with plenty of supporting photography. My current theme Cartwheels over Lesotho was inspired by the acrobatic driving style required for such expedition and also by the sobering fact that our Lesotho experience remained fast and superficial but was quite aerial.

In the coming weeks, look for tales of dirt roads and torrential rains, of camping kleptomaniacs and good-hearted traffic cops, of wine bottles hidden by a riverside, of game grazing freely on rolling hills and on wonderfully lush lands, of stars and satellites drawing perfect skies, of solitude and silence and peace, of unsettling poverty and proud herders, of hairy mountain passes and differential lock, and of all the small traveling links that glue all these together.

For now, though, here are a few simple panoramas to illustrate the many faces of the land we explored. At times hot and dry and harsh, later lush and green and soft, the South African landscape never ceases to amaze me. Voyez plutôt:

Sigrid

Adam

Brilliant photos. Is there any way to get a high res copy of the Lesotho picture? I’ve recently relocated after three years in Lesotho and have lots of pictures of the mountains but nothing quite like that.

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Random flashback 1:

How frustrating to have been given a brain, just like one is given a paintbrush, and be obliged to go through life clumsily and randomly using it to stain rough sheets of paper with clashing colors, while others are busily painting Mona Lisas. Lucky is…

Random flashback 2:

A modest sunset on the Seawall, a few nights ago. Nothing to write home about – West Coast sunsets can be so stunning at times – but Abe was getting restless and I was nostalgic. Next, I’ll go after trees and their moss…

Random flashback 3:

These were taken last December, during a ritual visit to Kirstenbosch which is located just a stone’s throw away when we are at home in Constantia, South Africa. In the background, Table Mountain’s majestic cliffs. Pincushion